“At this moment, as an Italian, I can only feel ashamed. It is not by blocking ships at sea for four or five days that we face the phenomenon of migration. So we only play with people’s lives. women, perhaps pregnant, I believe that we should all feel profound shame. In the face of vulnerable subjects, sensitivity and attention should be even greater “. Vincenzo Campo, mayor of Pantelleria, told Adnkronos about the hard line against NGOs announced in recent days by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi. In the central Mediterranean, three humanitarian ships are waiting to be able to land their ‘load’ of human lives: almost a thousand shipwrecked, including newborns, minors who have crossed the Mediterranean alone and women, some of them pregnant, have been waiting for days on the decks of the ships. On board Humanity1, where a minor with severe abdominal pain was evacuated by the Italian Coast Guard, there is also a 7-month-old baby boy and his young mother of just 17, who can no longer breastfeed. And there is Buba, 18, from The Gambia, who has already tried twice to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard and brought back. “I’m so glad you saved me, I could stay on this ship forever,” he says. He told the Humanity1 team about his travel companions who disappeared in the waves. The night before being rescued about ten people ended up in the water. “Maybe someone fell asleep and dragged the others”, speculates Buba. Four managed to get back on board, but six others did not. “We saw them disappear in the waves.” “I tell the new Meloni government to stop with this little theater – adds the mayor -. Instead, we need to work with Europe for the redistribution of migrants, because Italy is the point of arrival but not the final destination for 1980. percent of those who arrive on our coasts. And it is also necessary to weave diplomatic networks on the front of the countries of North Africa because those who flee from wars, misery and violence. And face the sea relying on traffickers because there are no legal ways of access “. On his island the landings are daily. Small boats, especially Tunisians. “If they come from other countries it is because as a rule they have taken the wrong route”, he explains, underlining that “the situation is under control, even if we are in an emergency”. In fact, 160 migrants are currently present in Pantelleria. For tomorrow the Prefecture of Trapani has arranged an extraordinary run of the ferry to Pantelleria. “About a hundred should leave – says Campo -. Even if the situation is not simple, it is certainly better than last year, even if the numbers of arrivals are much higher. The absence of anti-Covid health protocols that also imposed quarantine the contacts of the subjects positive to the virus, with the migrants forced to stay up to 20 days on the island, has speeded up the procedures and transfers “. The head of the Interior Ministry, while reiterating that landings “do not depend only on NGOs”, stressed that the presence of humanitarian ships at sea is “an attraction factor for migrants”, the so-called pull factor. “In the Mediterranean there are massacres, if there are files that demonstrate what the minister says, the investigations are welcome – concludes the mayor of Pantelleria -. Perhaps, however, we should reflect on the fact that their presence at sea has prevented other deaths. Certainly the migratory phenomenon must be managed and regulated, but the solution is not to leave these people at sea for days before granting the disembarkation. The center-right, once again, proves that it is unable to tackle the migrant issue “. (by Rossana Lo Castro)